insomnia Posted February 3, 2012 Share #41  Posted February 3, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) I sold my 50 Summilux II (had recently been to Solms for a 400€ service) via eBay and wouldn't choose that platform again for selling.  My lens was in great optical and mechanical and good cosmetical condition and that's how I described it (sold it used with signs of use). First contact: the buyer (fino****) calling me to make the deal "without ebay, to safe some money for the both of us). After I denied and he received the lens, the buyer told me the focus was wobbly and the lens looks more than used (but never showed pictures), he wanted to send it back or (and that's clearly what he was up to) get some of his money back. After I refused to, he played the "I'll call my lawyer"-card and as I told him I would be happy to hear from his lawyer then, as I'm insured, there was no more contact.  A few months later the very same lens showed up on his offers (I was interested what he would make of it, as he often buys and sells lenses, so I watched it). It was stated to be in perfect condition, literally "never used, from inheritance". And of course with a 300€ premium.  Thought a second about reporting to eBay (also the "let's do it without them"-thing), but decided it wasn't worth the hassle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 Hi insomnia, Take a look here I have just been eBay'ed.. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
thighslapper Posted February 3, 2012 Share #42 Â Posted February 3, 2012 After 12 years and a feedback of nearly 1000 (both buying and selling) I have been shafted only once and even then managed to bet my money back from Paypal. Â It's a buyers market and eBay will always side with the buyer..... sad but true... Â Sure, there are some real s**ts about but no more than any other marketplace, whether virtual or real.... Â ... but where else would you find such an easy, quick and economical place to sell secondhand gear ??? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganzosrevenge Posted February 3, 2012 Share #43 Â Posted February 3, 2012 Until I can avoid PayPal (I refuse to use them since they are NOT covered under USA bank laws... as they are technically NOT a bank) altogether, I will not touch eBay with my worst enemy's Telyt 280mm (yes, that was a dirty joke). If I could use say MY bank for payment, or another reputable bank, and refuse to offer PayPal fullstop... then MAYBE i'd give vague consideration to eBay. Till then, private sales. Â Jason Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgray Posted February 3, 2012 Share #44 Â Posted February 3, 2012 ... but where else would you find such an easy, quick and economical place to sell secondhand gear ??? Â Depending on the gear, a combination of craigslist, rangefinderforum, getdpi, fredmiranda, luminous-landscape, and photo.net is not only cheaper but has less hassle. In my experience. I find if you look at the going price for a piece of gear on ebay and take 10% off of that (which is what ebay fees and paypal would cost you), you can move items pretty quickly on the forums. Â Again, I think if you sell a lot, ebay can make sense. My mom does it and has few problems. And when she does have a problem, it costs her little enough not to worry about since she sells a fair amount of inexpensive stuff. When you sell one expensive item every 5 years and you have an unpleasant experience, it's a different story. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IWC Doppel Posted February 3, 2012 Share #45 Â Posted February 3, 2012 The main problem I have with eBay is the auction commission Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted February 3, 2012 Share #46  Posted February 3, 2012 The main problem I have with eBay is the auction commission  How do you find it compared to a dealers commission or the cost of a classified advert? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgray Posted February 3, 2012 Share #47 Â Posted February 3, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) How do you find it compared to a dealers commission or the cost of a classified advert? Â Don't know about dealers commission, but ebay is 9% for items over $1000. Compared to free at most of the sites I listed... it's a lot. RFF has a fee of $7 I think, which on a $3000 lens is a rounding error. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
biglouis Posted February 4, 2012 Share #48  Posted February 4, 2012 Ebay literally saved my financial life when I got into difficulties back in the early naughties (hey, must have worked out OK because I am a Leica owner now). I sold a lot of very expensive musical instruments and antiques and only had one scam on a junker videocam on which I lost the princely sum of £30. I raised a lot of money through ebay and I am very lucky it existed at the time (a few years earlier and it would have been difficult to have so easily turned my non-liquid assets into cash).  I only ever dealt in cash on collection or cleared cheque (never needed to use Paypal in those days).  As soon as eBay insisted on Paypal payment as an option I stopped using ebay for any high value items. I did list for a time insisting I would not accept paypal but inevitably my auctions were stopped by ebay. I've continued to sell small items that I won't cry over if it all goes south and fortunately I have had no problems but I have a floor limit (carry over from retailing days) and won't sell anything worth more than £100 via ebay.  For expensive camera equipment I only use forums such as this, the Rangefinder forum and other specialist camera forums.You only pay a single flat fee and the identification of users is often a lot easier  I have actually reported ebay to the competition commission here in the UK several times as operating near uncompetitive practices in terms of payment by clearly either no action has ever been taken.  I do, however buy all my film off ebay!  LouisB Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaques Posted February 4, 2012 Share #49 Â Posted February 4, 2012 in Australia ebay tried to ram the 'paypal only' BS down sellers throats- there was a huge stink- a lot of petitions signed and eventually our ACCC ruled that it was an anti-competitive action and ebay was forced to do a complete backflip. We can now sell with bank deposit only- or use other payment options and don't even have to use paypal if we don't want. Ebay of course does whatever it can to direct buyers to use paypal- making it hard to find other payment options and stressing the 'safety' of paypal. Â At the moment I have some obscure microscope items on ebay (some Leitz) and there is no other place I know of that I could readily sell them. They are so obscure only a handful of people around the world are likely interested in them. For better or worse ebay is the only place that can bring these buyers to sellers. I have always hoped someone would manage a viable alternative and break ebays monopoly but it hasn't happened yet... The monopoly has allowed ebay to become very arrogant- they treat their better sellers with disdain- as far as they are concerned there are plenty more coming online every day. Â As others have noted- for very expensive items that are in demand- worth over a few thousand- there are other options that work well and offer the seller more security. But I have also sold items up to 4K without issue. Â First thing I ever sold on ebay was a complete Pentax 110 SLR outfit. I paid $125 for it at a camera store and sold it withing 8 days for $500 to a buyer in Texas. He was happy- and I was very happy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted February 4, 2012 Share #50 Â Posted February 4, 2012 in Australia ebay tried to ram the 'paypal only' BS down sellers throats... Â Have eBay ever had a Paypal only policy? I agree it should be optional, but without Paypal international sales would be much more difficult. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksporry Posted February 4, 2012 Share #51 Â Posted February 4, 2012 Well, I tend to agree with Ebay beng too protective of buyers and just assume the buyer is right. I think both buyer and seller should provide evidence of teh situation and workit liek that. But I guess it makes sense ebay leans towards teh buyers, afterall, a sold object is income for ebay. Â I have had some experiences with Ebay and paypal as well, bad ones. Once someone hacked into my paypal accoount, which was linked to mybank account. He went on a shopping spree! ALmost plundered my whole account! I found out within day or two after it happened, and went into my paypal account and reported it all The guy was a complete idiot becaue he did not change the registered email address, etc, just added his own address. Created a fake new ebay account using my name, and went shoppng. I contacted teh sellers he was buying from, and they toldd me I was lucky that they didnt send anything. They didnt send anything, I reported the whole incident to paypal and ebay, explained the situation, and considering I had a it of history both selling and buying, I guess they managed to help me out. I got my money back and since then I never leave any of my details online. Â A friend of mine, I;m a shamed to say was not so honest. She has several ebay account and once she had bought an expensive harddrive in Malaysia, and wanted to sell it n the UK. She never got the money she wanted for it (it had devaluated quite a lot actually), so she bid against it to drive up teh price. I told her off for that. I was really upset actually. If she doesnt want to sell below a certain price she shuld put up a resrve, but I told her probably she will never sell it, because her desired price is far too high... Â I've always been honest as a seller, bt I put strict clauses up, including no return clauses.I provid many pics, and thats what it is like. I explain in the add that they can claim from teh courier if it doesnt arrive in the advertised condition, but its in teh advertied condition when I send it. Just protecting myself there. So far everyone has been happy... Â ANyways, that's my experience, now lets get back to taking pics! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OwinThomas Posted February 4, 2012 Share #52 Â Posted February 4, 2012 Never have used, nor ever will use eBay. Too many of these stories exist. Â If I'm selling or buying used, I want a face to face exchange. Any problems that can't be sorted there and then allows both parties to walk away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaques Posted February 4, 2012 Share #53  Posted February 4, 2012 your loss- I wouldn't be too paranoid.  Just yesterday I got a small gauge cylinder honing tool in the mail. Cost me 12$ delivered to my door from Hong Kong (in 14 days). Finding that thing where I live would have been a pain in the arse and cost three times as much at least plus petrol and telephone calls  A few years ago I won a rare espresso machine for a few hundred dollars: today it is valued in excess of 10,000. I doubt you could ever find another- except maybe on ebay...  balance those success stories and a million others against the bad ones you have heard.   In over 3000 transactions I would guess I have had maybe 4 or five that were very disappointing, a few dozen slight let downs (can happen shopping anywhere) but overall I am so far ahead I can afford more than a few total losses- not that I've had them. . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgray Posted February 4, 2012 Share #54 Â Posted February 4, 2012 I think one of the problems when it comes to ebay and cameras is that it's a market full of scammers and people who aren't honest about the condition of their gear, even outside of ebay. Â Back in the late 90's/early 2000's, I bought and sold several musical instruments off of ebay and it was good. I've never really had any real negative purchases on ebay - heck I bought my first Leica there! Â My main complaint with it now is a) no negative feedback for buyers, paypal only, c) the negative attitude of some buyers (complaining about shipping costs, etc.) and d) how these things can combine to make a mess of things IF a buyer is dishonest. The feedback is the worst part of it probably. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted February 4, 2012 Share #55  Posted February 4, 2012 paypal only  Unless something has changed recently this isn't the case. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
farnz Posted February 4, 2012 Share #56 Â Posted February 4, 2012 Never have used, nor ever will use eBay. Too many of these stories exist. ... Your choice of course but you may be doing yourself a disservice because for every one of these stories there are many millions of successful and satisfactory ones you'll never hear about. Â It's like seeing a documentary about pedestrians being run over and killed on the footway/sidewalk and deciding that it's too dangerous and never to walk beside a road again. For every story where a pedestrian was killed there are millions if not billions where people have walked safely beside roads but of course we (rightly) never hear of these. Â Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgray Posted February 4, 2012 Share #57 Â Posted February 4, 2012 Unless something has changed recently this isn't the case. Â I'm pretty sure I haven't had the option the past couple years for anything other than Paypal. But then again, I don't sell that much, so maybe I missed the other options. Â In general, I don't have a problem with Paypal - it's pretty cool. It's just in conjunction with a system heavily biased towards the buyer and the fact that as a seller you can't warn people about crummy buyers that bugs me. The feedback thing is the thing that really pisses me off. Â But hey, if others like to sell on ebay, that's great. I'm not going off of internet rumors as to why I've decided not to sell there anymore, just personal experience in a couple of my last sales of big items. I've just found that I sell my items easier, quicker, with less hassle, and for more money on forums. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted February 4, 2012 Share #58  Posted February 4, 2012 I'm pretty sure I haven't had the option the past couple years for anything other than Paypal. But then again, I don't sell that much, so maybe I missed the other options. In general, I don't have a problem with Paypal - it's pretty cool. It's just in conjunction with a system heavily biased towards the buyer and the fact that as a seller you can't warn people about crummy buyers that bugs me. The feedback thing is the thing that really pisses me off.  But hey, if others like to sell on ebay, that's great. I'm not going off of internet rumors as to why I've decd not to sell there anymore, just personal experience in a couple of my last sales of big items. I've just found that I sell my items easier, quicker, with less hassle, and for more money on forums.  It's important to check and be correct in what you say, bit bugbear of mine is people posting stuff on internet forums as fact when they really don't know. Paypay has to be an option but doesn't have to be the only option of payment. As the seller you choose how you want to be paid, you can choose paypal only, but that's not to say that other options can't be offered. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted February 4, 2012 Share #59 Â Posted February 4, 2012 Just checked my own feedback, I've made 477 ebay transactions and I have had, I think, 3 'bad' experiences. Two have been resolved in my favour by ebay and one is ongoing. Â That's not a bad ratio though, there are always people out there trying to con you, if they're determined to scam you they will, doesn't matter if its via ebay or in person. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OwinThomas Posted February 4, 2012 Share #60 Â Posted February 4, 2012 your loss- I wouldn't be too paranoid. Â Your choice of course but you may be doing yourself a disservice because for every one of these stories there are many millions of successful and satisfactory ones you'll never hear about. Â I agree there are thousands of success stories, which we don't hear. A friend of mine has sold a lot of stuff on eBay and is very happy with it. Â It may be just me but there is no seller protection, or very little, it all seems to be in the buyers favour. The buyer has to say one word and eBay and its Paypal counterpart comes down on their side, without investigating who is in the wrong. That sort of system to me isn't worth the effort, I'm afraid. Â You can call me foolish, or paranoid, I don't mind, but it is still not for me. All power to you if it works for you and you trust that if anything goes wrong you will get a fair hearing, that's your choice to use the service, as it is mine to choose not to. Â ... if they're determined to scam you they will, doesn't matter if its via ebay or in person. Â That's also true, but if I judge the deal isn't going to my liking, I can decide to walk away with my goods or my money. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.